


Secret Santa but Late

by Nobodu (orphan_account)



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 18:10:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17329943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Nobodu
Summary: where zen only finds the love of his life AFTER the fucking apocolypse starts.





	Secret Santa but Late

_ ♥️ I once knew a boy who thought he could shoulder the entire world. _

  
  
  
  


zen fought the next couple of zombies, his back appears to be open, and one of the smarter ones evidently figures that out and swings at his back before falling onto the ground. “thanks!” he shouts as he hacks down another zombie.

the girl smiles and doesn’t reply.

(can’t reply)

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


“we didn’t die.” zen reports to jumin, and somehow the notion that jumin has become the boss makes him hate jumin just a little bit more.

(or so he says. everyone knows that he’s actually just very very glad that jumin is not there trying to fight and die.)

(yoosung tells him he’s biased because yoosung can’t fight either)

(he tells yoosung to shut up)

  
  
  


(he’s not wrong though)

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


rika says goodbye with a bright smile and slightly tinted lips (for jihyun).

jihyun waves to them, gives jumin a small smile and goes off with her.

 

they don’t come back

  
  
  
  
  
  


not for a long time.

  
  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


when jihyun comes back with a truckload of supplies (when did he learn how to drive a truck?), he brings another girl home to the base and introduces her as minseo.

“be kind to her” he says.

minseo pouts at jihyun before he goes any further and he frowns at her and they seem to have a telepathic argument before jihyun continues to explain, much at the displeasure of minseo. 

“she’s mute.” 

“deaf?” yoosung asks, confused and the two shake their head.

minseo does something with her hands (sign language, jumin helpfully provides behind him)

there’s an awkward silence as she talks with her hands until jaehee replies, “i’m sorry to hear that. i promise we’re going to help you accomplish your goal, okay?”

the girl brightens up in relief as jaehee continues to have a conversation that sounds one-sided but is not.

and when they finally remember to ask jihyun what was happening, the man has disappeared, the handle on his door, locked.

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


after minseo is finally tired out by their endless chatting, she retires to her room, and the boys turn to jaehee, who clearly is ready to do something. 

“in university, she was creating nanotechnology to fix her throat. however, because of the zombies, she had to flee. she was just wandering around until jihyun found her.”

“and?” jumin asks, knowing his past PA all too well.

“we should help her.”

“and uh, how do you propose we do that?” seven asks.

jaehee gives them a menacing smile as she says, “we either find her university, or a lab that has the materials she needs.”  _ and anyone that disagrees wil die by my hand _ .

they all nod, not ready to die by jaehee’s hand.

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  
  


when jihyun emerges in the morning, he doesn’t seem any better as he crashes into the dining table twice. “...are you okay?” jumin asks, worried.

yoosung only glares at the man as jihyun gives them a weak smile. “during the way back, i hurt my eyes.”

minseo frowns a bit at his words, but she doesn’t comment, and that’s that.

“do you need glasses?” jaehee asks, and jihyun pauses. “n- actually, yeah, thank you.”

minseo smiles and gives him a thumbs up when jihyun asks how he looks, and zen thinks  _ oh _

 

means: you’re beautiful

  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


they pack up their bags and start their way to minseo’s old university.

zen stares at the girl just a little, stares at her long lashes, at her tan skin, stares at her the way the stars stare at the moon.

(“seven, where’s my red wine you promised.” “oh come on, are you serious? zen why!”)

  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

 

“what’s your favourite color?” he asks, and watches her as she writes down  _ green _ down.

“nice! mine is grey” he replies. “together we make… what does green and gray even make?” he asks and this question has clearly also stumped the girl.

_ metallic green? _ she tries and zen nods. “yes! we make metallic green!” he announces excitedly, giving the girl a high five.

(“okay i know what i’ve said, but fuck me they actually look really cute together.”)

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  
  


“jihyun, where is my cousin.” yoosung, not bothering with honorifics. he’d clearly had this question since jihyun came back, and jihyun winces.

“she’s... dead.” he whispers, and zen turns to look at jumin who’s glaring murderously at yoosung.

zen turns to minseo and whispers, “oh fuck, jumin’s mad.”

she nods.

he repeats himself. “jumin’s mad.”

minseo nods again, not getting his point. 

“i hate it when he gets mad.” zen says, pouting, as if that explained everything. and to minseo, perhaps it did as she started wheezing out air from laughter.

he pouts again. “don’t laugh~ ”

minseo signs,  _ can’t help it! you’re so cute! _

and he can feel his face burning. “you think i’m cute?”

_ yep _

(“why the fuck are they doing this while this is happening?” jaehee grumbles, pointing at the flirting couple, and the gesturing at jihyun, yoosung and jumin.)

(“let them be. they’re so cute.” seven replies)

(“i don’t count mutual pining for like, the entire trip cute. like, how do you not notice?”)

(“oh shut up, i think minseo’s realized.”)

(“and zen?”)

(“well, zen’s kinda slow.”)

(“don’t say that about zen again.”)

(“well, it’s tr-mph!”)

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

 

there’s a blanket of awkward around their heads as yoosung hates on jihyun over and over again. jumin frowns and scolds yoosung everytime he is there, but most of the time he’s not and jihyun doesn’t talk about, doesn’t refute, doesn’t even move.

he just sits there, becoming smaller and smaller until he reaches a point that zen didn’t realize was possible.

minseo’s in jihyun’s lap this time, and jihyun has her ears covered and it hurts zen so much he almost asks.

_ why do you care so much for others and yet so little about yourself? _

and his reply is wordless, silent, nonexistent yet there.

_ why do you love so deeply no matter what? bound yourself so tightly to something so easily lost? _

and he can’t, can’t answer.

 

but he knows, and he understands jihyun just enough to know what jihyun’s answer is.

  
  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


_ you’re scared of hurting me? _ she asks, a bit disbelieving.

he pauses his words a bit, bites his lip. “well, yes?”

_ i’m not that fragile. plus, i know you. _

“yeah but what if-”

_ hyun. i trust you.  _ she signs and then  _ but didn’t you realize how i was staring at you the entire time? _

“i was too busy staring at you to realize you were staring at me back” he says honestly and she flushes.

_ oh _

  
  


(“shut your mouth this is a beautiful moment you’re going to ruin it.” - jaehee)

(“h-what? i literally breathed?”- seven)

(“think better next time.” - jumin)

(“GUYS I BREATHED, WHAT IS THI-” - seven)

  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  


they reach the university safely, almost too safely. there were no zombie hoards, no nothing.

no one cares, all too focused on helping minseo, watching over minseo, making sure minseo eats, babying minseo, love-loving minseo. (the last one might just be zen.) until one day, jihyun says he has to leave for a while.

_ don’t go, _ minseo signs, crying.

jihyun takes her hands and kisses them. “i’ll be back”

minseo shakes her head.  _ please, please, please stay here _ .

and jihyun finally sheds a tear and shakes his head. “darling, you know.”

and apparently, minseo does but she’s still sobbing as he leaves away, away, away.

when zen looks at yoosung, the boy is frowning, guilt seeping into any and every corner of his wall he built against jihyun.

 

( _ he’s like, my dad _ minseo signs.)

(“i wasn’t jealous!”)

( _ are you sure? _ )

(“omg yes, i’m sure!”)

  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  


but jihyun doesn’t come back for a long time. even after minseo’s voice is returned.

jihyun only returns when rika comes back, with the zombies.

“w-what? is that jihyun? and rika?” zen squints at the distance. 

yoosung perks up at the mention of both people. he’d been preparing his apology to jihyun for more than a year. “w- isn’t rika gone?”

“maybe. she’s sitting on, like, a carriage? in the middle of the zombie crowd?”

“WHAT?” they all shout at zen.

“i don’t know either!” he shouts back.

minseo raises her hand. “is rika the blond lady?”

they all nod and she says: “i’ve seen her before”. The RFA freak out and ask her what the fuck is going. The noise gets louder and louder before minseo shouts “everyone calm down and hold someone’s hand!” before zen’s hands reach hers and she softly whispers, “oh.”

he blushes and she gives him a peck on the cheek and jumin sighs. “i love you two both very much but please do not have a Moment while we’re trying to figure out why rika is the queen of the zombies.” 

he’s holding zen’s other hand, and they slowly have formed a circle with their hands.

seven comments unhelpfully: “i feel like i’ve joined a cult.”

“Anyways, now that you guys have calmed down, uh… that blond lady was the one that attacked me. jihyun helped me get away. it was then that his eyes g-”

“wait, wait, rika attacked you?” jaehee asks in disbelief.

“yeah. he told me not to say anything, and i didn’t realize that the blond lady was rika until today, so i didn’t.”

yoosung sinks down onto the ground. “i feel like shit.”

“anyways, um, that’s what happened that day.”

“okay, that’s pretty helpful” jumin nods at minseo, who beams. “now, does anyone have a guess at what happened to rika?”

everyone shakes their head and jumin sighs. 

“we could check jihyun’s stuff?” jaehee suggests, and immediately, everyone lets go of each others’ hands and runs towards jihyun’s room.

(“zen, the useless straight, finally blinks out of his staring of minseo’s eyes. ryu hyun, everyone.” jumin monotones.)

(“you’re right but i still feel attacked.”)

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


they manage to find the letter jihyun has left for them in the pocket of his bag.

_ hey guys. i know what you are all thinking (if you have opened this at the right time.) the truth is  _ there are so many words underneath erased and rewritten and re-erased, _ we were attacked by a couple of zombies, and rika was bitten before we drove them away. they started hailing her as queen, but she still had some of  her memories intact, so she still went with me back to the base. we found minseo, when rika had attacked her.  _

“that’s… that’s not true. i found them. rika was arguing with jihyun before noticin- maybe, what if she was attacking him befo- but rika’s skin wasn’t dirty olive.”

“rika’s skin still isn’t like that of a normal zombie.” zen remembers, and then frowns. “in fact, rika looks too much like a normal person.”

“sh-she didn’t try to eat me though. like, she could’ve bitten me, but she was just trying to get rid of m-”

“did rika create the zombies? maybe jihyun knew about it the entire time.” jaehee hypothesizes.

“What?”

“think about it. didn’t jihyun disappear for short amount of times while we were traveling? and there were almost no zombies that ever even approached us.”

“he was contacting rika during those time?” zen asks in confirmation.

she nods. “that’s what i’m guessing. He must’ve made a deal with her.”

“but, what about the attacks previously? was she just that good of an actress?” yoosung asks, biting his lip.

there’s a silence that falls after. 

 

“...maybe… just maybe.” jumin whispers.

 

_ but please, please don’t save me. i know i’ll be a monster the next time we meet. it is better that you never find me ever again. _

  
  
  
  


total silence.

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

it’s war.

 

it ends up becoming a war. more humans heard about the University and joined them, and slowly, the number rose to a point where they could fight the zombies evenly.

 

jumin becomes commander, and jaehee back to his right hand. yoosung becomes their medic, and zen offers to lead the front, and promises that he won’t die to every single one of them before they allow him.

seven creates the weapons that they use, figuring out every which way zen could use it to save his life. testing and retesting and minseo doesn’t leave her laboratory, starting an effort to figure out how to make the zombies become human again if that was possible.

“don’t you dare die.” is what she shouts through the door when zen tells her he’s leaving.

he smiles. “got it.”

quieter, she says: “bring him back home”

“of course.”

 

⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  
  


zen basically bombs his way through the crowd of zombies, keeping an eye out for jihyun. when he finally spots the turqoise hair

he raises his… sword? gun? gunsword? and shouts: “BRING THIS ONE BACK HOME.” and gestures at jihyun. the zombie perks up at his name, and zen’s heart suddenly breaks and shatters into pieces. he wasn’t wearing glasses, and it was clear that the zombie could not even see. what was rika thinking, bring the man to the front of the batt-

“Hy…un?” the zombie asks.

 

“Yeah?”

“Le…t me …go.”

 

(but i can’t)

  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

 

the war is over. minseo has figured out the ‘cure’ and seven has figured out how to modify the weapons so they could shoot the zombies with the cure, and zen has reached rika. 

  
  
  


the moment he comes back, zen is attacked with hugs. “you’re safe.” jumin says to him, not hugging him. which is fair, considering it’s jumin and he’s zen. minseo goes up to him and doesn’t say anything, just hugs him tightly and he thinks this is also fair. he must’ve worried them a lot.

“what about jihyun?” yoosung asks and zen gives them a bitter smile.

“we brought him back.”

“then why do you look your heart has been torn apart.”

“he says he doesn’t have much longer”

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


minseo runs into jihyun’s arms, and the man only barely avoids a concussion as he falls onto his back. 

“jihyun!” she shouts and repeats his name again and again as tears streamed down her face.

the zombie pauses, “min…seo? y…our voi…ce?”

“i got my voice back. i wanted to tell you but you were gone.”

he pats her head and hugs her.

“i’m… glad… i g-got… to … hear your vo…ice … befo…re i die.”

“no! i figured out how to undo the genetic modifications of the zombies. we can save you too.”

he shakes his head. “w… as gu…niea pig… too many… modi…fic…ation”

“please don’t say that. jihyun, i can save you.”

 

⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

 

after minseo’s modifications, jihyun does get better, but not enough. the old failures of rika’s experiments affected his body too much. yoosung cries and apologizes and when jihyun tries to talk back, the younger boy tells jihyun to shut up, because he  _ was _ wrong.

they do constant check-ups on the jihyun’s body, and each time, yoosung tells them that jihyun isn’t getting better, hasn’t been getting better for the last four months. and so they do everything they can in the time span yoosung offers: three years.

they get jihyun a camera, and tell hims to take as many photos as he wants and brings him everywhere they can. and their efforts are not lost on the man. he smiles and laughs and feels happy, he tells them.

⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  
  
  


two months left: “jihyun, an invitation to our wedding.”

  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  


when jihyun can’t get up anymore, can’t move anymore, almost can’t breathe anymore, they all give him a tight, tight hug, telling him their goodbyes and letting their tears spill.

and he can’t reply, but when yoosung finally can’t feel jihyun’s heartbeat in his wrist, he realizes that jihyun’s smiling.

  
  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  
  
  


a photo shows six people. a bride and a groom, laughing brightly in front of the camera, rings on their fingers. a man is standing behind them has a glass of red wine, giving them a look -disgusted but also proud, and the woman beside him is taking a bite of a cupcake. the last two people are below the newly weds, playing with a dog.

the photo next to it: seven people, all with matching smiles

  
  
  
  
  


⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

  
  


in the newly developed world, they are praised as heroes. using their fame, they open up a museum, where one gallery stays constant.

  
  


_ | At the End of the End of the World is the famous gallery at the RFA museum in New Korea, where there are photos by Jihyun Kim that show the world after the WWZ just ended. It is filled with photos of destruction and desolation, but as you move through the gallery, more and more becomes photos of hope; of happiness.  _

_ The founders of the museum, the heroes of our new world say that it is a memorial for their friend, the photographer, Jihyun Kim…  _

 

 

 

 

⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥

 

 

 

 

 

And on his grave: To the Most Beloved

  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_ ♥️ With his heart, he tried to lift it, and with his arms, he tried to hold it. (Oh boy, did he try) _

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This ended up being jihyun/v focused im so sorry rue.  
> 2\. Me and jumin are the same person. We are one and the same  
> 3\. The werid crack/angst was uh me trying to make it fluffy.  
> 4\. I’m so sorry about the plot it’s shit :( you can tell where i gave up on trying to make this make sense


End file.
